As time began to march once more, our heroes arrived in the town of Red Larch. As per usual, our heroes split upon entering the town. Seraphina went towards the inn and stables. There was no one present and a sign saying “Be back later” so she stabled the horses herself.She then went into the inn. She saw a couple of people playing cards. On one side was a one-eyed human man and the other a cat-like humanoid woman known as a Tabaxi. Seraphina quickly noticed the cards were marked.
Meanwhile Mitsui was going through town, buying food at each location she could find. Xerox was doing some shopping as well, although was looking for some shadier elements. Upon finding such a place, he requested information about giant attacks, as well as requesting how he could get the deed to a piece of land in Waterdeep. There was some bargaining back and forth, but they came to an agreement.
Back at the inn, the two patrons playing cards were getting into a fight. The one-eyed man had attempted to wager a pocket watch that he claimed was worth 5 gold. Seraphina, who was sitting at the table spoke up claiming it wasn’t worth 5 gold, which then started a rukkus as the man claimed the tabaxi was cheating. The tabaxi spoke up saying it was fine and challenged the man to a different game, a game of strength. Tao underestimated the old man and was bested at the test of strength, a simple arm wrestle. Tao admitted defeat and handed him back her previous spoils which consisted of 5 gold and his original wager of the pocket watch. Pleased with himself, the old man left and got back to work.
Seraphina and the tabaxi, who introduced herself as Tao,talked a bit about Tao’s history, learning that she gambled to make money for her family. After a while they agreed Tao would travel with them for a bit, as there is safety in numbers and capable people are a rare find. During this conversation Mitsui was heading back to the inn, then remembered Harshnag might want some food and went back to the butcher and bought 2500 lbs of meat dragging it out of town for the friendly giant. Xeric walked into the inn and bought drinks for the whole tavern. Tao thanked him and took the drink, gulping it down instantly. Xeric took instant interest in getting Tao intoxicated, so called out to the bar to continuously bring Tao drinks until she was wasted, his plan ultimately failed as normal Beer seemed to have no effect on her as she consumed 4 pints in front of him with ease. Frustrated, Xeric called over to the bar asking if they could bring over anything stronger. The bar called out to question how strong? To which Xeric replied the strongest you’ve got. As this conversation was going on Jayr entered the bar and sat down at the table alongside Tao, Xeric and Seraphina. The bar keeper would go to the back room eventually returning with a bottle of ‘Dragon’s Milk’. “This is the strongest we have,” he said as he handed Xeric the bottle. Xeric would pour two shots of the potent liquid, one for Tao and one for Jayr. Tao gladly took the shot, saying thank you for the kindness, at the same time Jayr followed suit. Jayr began to squint his eyes as he completely blacked out and smacked his head on the table out cold. Tao, in drunken fashion, squinted her eyes and began to act happy. Xeric offered her another shot, but Tao, being sober enough to refuse, said she was at her limit. . Meanwhile, Mitsui was heading back to the inn when she remembered Harshnag might want some food and went back to the butcher and bought 2500 lbs of meat and dragged it out of town for the friendly giant.
During the drinking contest hosted by Xeric, Seraphina had left the tavern as it began to get messy. Shenoticed smoke outside the city and decided to send Lola to investigate. Using Beast Sense to look through Lola’s eyes,, she saw it was Mitsui and Harshnag cooking a cow’s worth of meat and decided to join them before returning to the inn for the night. Mitsui stayed with Harshnag.
The next morning our heroes got up…except for Jayr who was still ruined behind the bar. They decided to drag him out of the tavern and threw a bucket of water at him. This woke him up abruptly in his dazed state. Xeric and Seraphina convinced him that he had sworn fealty to Mitsui as his new god. Then our heroes left town with an additional member in tow. When Mitsui saw the new pet, she ran up and said, “Hi pet,” and scratched behind the cat’s ears. Tao gave pause at this gesture as it was different, but not a bad sensation, just something that no one has ever done to her before. Their next stop was Westbridge where they stayed at an inn with eccentric art. Xeric noticed instant value to some of the art in the inn and attempted to steal the gems off some of the statues. The first he broke and second he successfully pried the gems from the eyes. However eventually the innkeeper did notice and let out a shriek in horror, Waking everyone up. Although Xeric stole the gems, the innkeeper hired Xeric to help find the culprit, however he began to get suspicious of him as he began questioning him about his traders log and his repeated attempts to gain access to it after the innkeeper refused. He was convinced however to show Mitsui the log. In the morning people were again awoken by another loud scream to which the majority of the party ignored. All of his artwork was gone.When the party did come to, they didn’t particularly care about the innkeeper or his art and left, However Xeric hung back a bit before leaving, and they couldn’t find Mitsui or the party’s Bag of Holding. About an hour and a half after the party left, Mitsui joined the party carrying something wrapped in cloth. Xeric ran to question Mitsui and Mitsui said “it’s gone, she doesn’t have it” as she tossed the party’s Bag of Holding Back in the cart, all the party’s loot still accounted for.
Their next stop was Triboar. They visited some of the people they had helped before. The town was well on the way to being rebuilt. After Mitsui was stopped from digging a new hole in the middle of town, they learned that they had found some metal object but couldn’t get it out of the ground so left it there. The giants had come back but were fought away once more. Mitsui warned the town leader that the giant’s will always come for that metal. The town had increased their guard and were on high alert after the original destruction of their town they believed the assassins had only been after their local crazy person, but recently someone had come, killed, and burned down Othovir’s home. Upon investigating it, Jayr found a symbol of 3 inverted triangles. Our heroes then hit the road again, with Jayr having a very solemn expression.
The next stop was Longsaddle. Our heroes didn’t stay here long. Tao entered a gambling hall to set up a swindle but knew straight away that she wasn’t able to run a scam in such an establishment without drawing attention to herself. She decided to partake in some legal gambling and won a few games of cards and a game of marbles. The group also found a wanted poster, a 5000 gold reward for the capture of a dwarven brigand named Worvil Forkbeard, known as the Weevil. Our heroes didn’t stay long at all before heading off again.
After another day they finally reached Xantharl’s Keep, and went to the inn called The Falling Orc Inn and Tavern. A half-ogre known as Ardastra, the proprietor greeted our heroes as they entered. She also had a dwarven worker with her, Larg, who she told the party about and his story of how Larg was out in the Valley of Khedrun hunting a red dragon when an avalanche took out his companions, leaving him as the sole survivor. She felt sorry for him and took him under her wing as an employee. She began to flirt with Xeric and offered him a room for free, along with her company that evening should he accept.
During the night the guards were alerted to a large group of goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres, led by a giant. The guards sounded the alarm. All but Xeric went out and prepared for combat. Mitsui focused on trying to scare the ogres and goblins away. Tao used an ability she learned back in the Kaka’s home tribe of Jarlmoot to increase her size to that of a giant as she wrestled the giant to the ground, pinning him on the floor in a fierce grapple.. Harshnag was still seen as the largest threat to the enemy as everyone began to focus him with their attacks. Jayr healed people as much as he could, but Mitsui was eventually knocked unconscious. Tao in a flutter of unarmed strikes, while straddling herself on top of the giant, yelling at him in her giant’s tongue to surrender as she continued to whale her huge cat paws into his cheek bones. The giant surrendered and was caught for interrogation, little information was gathered from him before Seraphina jammed her knife in his throat, ending his life. The rest of the army that was left retreated. After being healed by Jayr, Mitsui made him grovel as all worshippers of gods should do. Our heroes gathered with Harshnag to camp the rest of the night.
While the fight outside the city was happening, Xeric noticed a group of 10 bugbears breaking in. They kidnapped the dwarf Larg, and when Xeric confronted them was just told to back off. Xeric followed them outside of town and tried confronting them again. They again warned him, but Xeric wasn’t scared off. He used hit and run tactics to slowly take them down. After a couple of them died, they killed Larg by mutilating his skin and took off.
Xeric brought the body back, and wanted to take the body to see if it was Worvil Forkbeard the dwarf from the bounty.. Arzastra insisted that he be given a decent burial. After some arguing, Xeric agreed, however later Xeric went to dig up the body after Arzastra had left. In the morning, he reunited with his companions.
Thus the world darkened, as it and everything in it sank into slumber.
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